Prepping for Meditation

I know some of the folks who are trying this meditation challenge are new to meditating so I thought I would present some basic guidelines to help people.

First, you do not have to meditate for an hour a day. When I first started meditating I limited myself to 5 minutes a day. I wanted to meditate but I was also scared of it. I figured if I limited myself to 5 minutes per day it wouldn't seem so overwhelming. It worked too! I tricked myself into not being scared.

Second, whatever schedule works for you is ok. You might choose 5 minutes a day, you might choose 1 hour a day. You might choose mornings as your favorite meditation time, you might choose evenings. It doesn't really matter what you do, as long as you take some time each day to sit with yourself and settle in to the quiet.

If you are brand new to meditating you might want to start with 5-10 minutes per day for the first week, 10-15 minutes per day for the 2nd week, 15-20 for the third week and 20-30 for the last week. Or, choose a different schedule that works for you.

For more ideas, here's a link to a Yoga Journal article describing a few simple meditation practices: Meditation 101.

Friday, June 1st is our start date. Let's get ready to sit.

Please Join me for 30 Days of Meditation

As a yoga teacher, I have some guilt that I do not meditate every day. I am also aware of yoga's first rule, Ahimsa (nonviolence), so I try to choose to not beat myself up for this "failing." Just the same, I remember how great my mind felt when I did meditate every day. I remember feeling like I was coming home every time I sat in Easy-seated pose or even Dandasana. I'd like to get that self-ease back and I'd like to invite other people to join me.

I've decided to do a 30 day "Meditation Challenge" in the month of June (pretty easy to keep track since June has 30 days). To keep myself accountable, I plan to blog about it here. I don't have a set amount of time per day that I will hold myself to. I am imagining anywhere from as little as 5 minutes to as much as 30 minutes per sit.

I'd like to invite anyone and everyone to join me in this challenge. You meditate in your house, I'll meditate in my house, and we'll meet up here and on Facebook to share our experiences and support each other.

I had a student ask me today if she could do this challenge since she had never meditated before. I said, "Yes, of course. All you have to do is sit down and do nothing." Ha ha ha - that makes it sound so easy. But as most of us know, doing nothing is just about impossible.

The lovely thing about meditation though, is that even if it is monumental to keep our minds quiet, we do build a certain calmness though this practice; an ability to sit through discomfort; a deep calm that comes from knowing ourselves. Here's a link to a few posts about meditation to get us all started. 

Looking forward to sitting with you. Namaste ~ Sara